A six-match unbeaten run for the Reds came to an end as they were outfought, outplayed and out-manoeuvred by Tony Pulis' side, who took the lead through a scrappy Fuller effort before Kenwyne Jones ensured the win in the dying seconds, just before Lucas Leiva was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Jamaican striker Fuller, whose stunning individual effort against Birmingham in midweek was his 100th in British football, told ESPN: "To have scored 100 goals is a great achievement but I'm more happy because the team won.

"Today was very difficult; Liverpool are a team getting back to their best and they have great players throughout the team, and it took a great effort throughout our team to beat them."

Fellow goalscorer Jones added: "This was a really good result coming off Tuesday's win, we knew we had to come out tonight and stop Liverpool scoring and we did that."

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Defeated Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson felt his side had been unable to cope well with Stoke's threat from throw-ins, long balls and set-pieces.

"The 1-0 goal came from a long throw, I thought we worked hard on defending that as well as we could during the week but once we went behind we had to take more risks. We hoped that would get us back in the game but unfortunately not.

"Today most of the day is about defending long throws and long balls forward, against Chelsea (a game which Liverpool won 2-0 last weekend) it's a team moving the ball around the field, you can't compare games against Stoke with games against Chelsea, everyone knows this (Stoke) is a very special game.

"We missed Fernando Torres in the second half, he took a kick to the ankle and twisted it slightly but we have got a week now (before their next game) and hopefully it's okay."

Asked whether Liverpool's heavy fixture list had led to this defeat, Hodgson added: "The way we finished the game we finished strongly, I don't think it's a question of legs, it was just a failure to deal with the problems Stoke cause you.

"We don't have that weapon in our armoury, we have to use our own weapons and I don't think we did that well enough until the last 25 minutes."

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Stoke boss Pulis told ESPN: "We're very pleased with the result. It's been a three-game week and to put in the effort we put in is first class.

"We worked very hard in the last couple of days and talked about not letting Liverpool settle on the ball. We wanted to press as high as we could as early as we could and try to knock them out of their stride."